What did you take for granted before lock down that you vow not to after?

The commute to work

That was where I had time to myself for 1hr a day, to listen to a podcast, call friends I don't see that often etc:

Hugs definitely the thing I miss most. I met my son at a garage last week and sat 6 feet apart on a wall afterwards. So hard not to hug hello and goodbye.

I can't say I took sport for granted, but I took it for granted that something could happen that would lead to no sport.
Usually in bad times like when we have the banking/property crash, we still had our sport to watch.

I think friends and family will be appreciated even more, as at the end of the day, they are all that matter.

Getting into the car and driving for miles, stopping off somewhere random and going for a long walk. Browsing the shops and not being so averse so other people. Being able to pick my nieces up and give them a big smacker on the lips. Just having the freedom to get up on a weekend and going where I want.

Cody montana wrote: »

Giving the middle finger to oap drivers.

I miss fingering grannys as well

Cheap flights to Europe at a whim.

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

Watching a live sporting event.

This, it’s the weekend and there should be a wall of sport, including football seasons heading to a climax.

Woke Hogan wrote: »

Not speaking for myself here, since I always valued my health, but I hope people will walk away from this with a whole new appreciation for how lucky they are to be healthy and safe. Maybe put less energy towards shallow pursuits like drinking and travelling.

Is visiting relatives who have been forced to emigrate "shallow"? Meeting up with old friends from different countries? Couples visiting each other in ongoing long-distance relationships?

I think you'll find very few people who would dispute that travel must be curtailed under the current circumstances. And of course if you happen to be one of the lucky few people nowadays who's life and social circle exist within a square mile of your house, then more power to you for being so fortunate.

But sanctimonious moralising about travelling as if it were some sort of hedonistic vice can eff right off. For people living abroad (including myself), this quarantine has made me even more acutely aware of the value of being able to travel freely back to Ireland and around the world to visit the people I care about, even if my career is elsewhere. It is far from shallow; it makes the distance that bit more bearable and keeps precious contacts going.

There have been many excesses related to mass-tourism in recent years, but there are other ways to tackle that rather than finger-wagging about something which is a necessity for millions of people in the modern world.

Still waters wrote: »

I miss the gym and the pool, other than that my life hasn't changed a whole lot, i swing in to my mother to see if she needs anything from the shops (keeping my distance of course) when I'm going to my yard, I've replaced the gym with walking 3 or 4 kms twice a day

Gym and pool being missed here, especially gym... as I said I’m lucky I have a park 3 minutes from home. But not great walking weather today. Still reliant on exercise for rehabilitation from a problem so not ideal but thankfully the weather will be improving over the next six weeks, brighter evenings too so over the 10-14 or so hours of brightness upcoming there should be plenty of opportunities to hopefully pick gaps between bad weather and keep fit and stave off the boredom too.